Opinion on a 16:9 tube set.

Have been eyeing the Sony 34XBR800 for my entry into a tube HD set. Anyone have it?

Any opinions?

- Jon

My opinion is that no current tube set is big enough. My 46" projection set is not quite big enough, and the tube sets don't go that big yet.

I doubt that tubes will ever go 46", especially in a 16:9... I have a 36" 4:3 now and it's plenty big for me. A 34" 16:9 will have a SIMILAR picture size as the 36", and that's ok. After considering plasma, lcd, and rear projection, I always go back to the quality of a tube... Plasma's are starting to get close...

I just went to Fry's to see the 34xbr800, and those guys just don't know anything about TVs. They just can't demo a TV to save their life. I had to watch broadcast TV that was barely getting a signal... yuk.

- Jon

My opinion is that no current tube set is big enough. My 46" projection set is not quite big enough, and the tube sets don't go that big yet.

Agreed. Still waiting for the day when the prices of 60" 16:9 plasma displays come into the range of mere mortals. That would be big enough for me...

Until then my 32" 16:9 CRT will have to do :-(

Still waiting for the day when the prices of 60" 16:9 plasma displays come into the range of mere mortals.

I'm waiting for plasma monitors to be happy at higher locations of the world. I have yet to find a plasma monitor on display here in Colorado Springs that dosen't buzz. Aparently it has something to do with the manufacturing of these units at sea level. As much as I hate projection, my eyes are set on a rear DLP projection TV sometime late next year.

You can get an NEC pg6 or pg9 series crt front projector for $1500-$2000. They are hdtv capable and will do 80 inches easily.

Here's one with slight wear on the tubes, of course you want to find one with virgin tubes.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1499&item=1942623058

Alan

They are hdtv capable and will do 80 inches easily.

I always wonder about systems which say "HDTV" but then deliver specs like this:

1600 x 1200 Pixels, 700 TV Lines (Video) 1000 TV Lines (HDTV)

HDTV is 1920 x 1080 interlaced...

I have read so many different spec's for what HDTV is I don't think anyone knows.

While we're here, I'm also kind-of looking for a 16:9 television. It must be 100Hz and it can't be too deep (there's only a smallish space in my house for it, 21in from wall to front of shelf). Ideally I'd get a 24in, but nobody seems to make 100Hz tellies smaller than 28in. Has anyone here got an opinion -- good or bad -- on the Sony 28LS60, which just fits my size budget? dabs.com are selling them for GBP645. I've got a lot of respect for Sony's CRT monitors -- are their tellies just as good?

Peter

Some people rave about Sony kit, but in the 28" 100Hz flat tube range I think the picture quality is generally similar. Obviously not in the same league, but I got a 28" Akura from Sainsbury's for £229, although you can find one from the same factory at various prices depending on the brand/features.

www.unbeatable.co.uk are pretty good on price - they have the KV28LS60 for £634 inc vat - they have a *lot* of widescreen TVs on their site, well worth a dig around to see if there's something else you fancy. I think you can collect from their Crawley shop to save the £27.50 delivery - just noticed this makes them more expensive than dabs :-(

Gareth
PS. I have a sweet Sony VTX-S750U Sky Digibox waiting to go on ebay if you're interested!

I have the first gen 36" Sony Wega and the picture quality on it is just awesome ... Can't vouch for the particular model you're looking at, but I'm really pleased with mine.

ms

It's so goofy because from what I've read, 1080i is just ONE of the HD resolutions .. apparently there are like 5 or 6 different resolutions that technically qualify as HD. I guess it downsamples or upsamples accordingly. Terribly confusing spec... makes it a nightmare for all of us consumers.

Correct. But in my case, I'm receiving 1080i broadcasts from HBOhd and SHOhd, and if I didn't have a 1080i television, then I'd be displaying a downsampled version of that. And I didn't go to all the trouble of setting up a HD home theater to get downsampled video.